"The Courage to Educate"

Abstract

1. Reflections on Our Future

Problems of education move each generation of parents and each epoch anew. In the process of social and historical change, traditions and customs, and the institutions, goals, and norms of education, upbringing, and specialized training, are not received without question in the educative interchange between the generations. Depending on the requirements of individual circumstances, as well as the social situation as a whole, they are examined anew; new aspects are emphasized as problems to be solved; and they are accommodated to new relationships and new forms of consciousness in keeping with their validity and import. This process of questioning and reorientation is always controversial; the point of emphasis and general tendency vary, however, depending on whether the new generation itself is the driving force, unsettling the generation of its parents and teachers, and appealing to their commitment to offer guidance and provide orientation; on whether and how the older generation reacts — with lack of understanding or a readiness for dialogue, with the courage to assume responsibility, or with authoritarian firmness; and on how social and political forces and institutions — associations, mass media, the church, science, and the parties in parliament — attempt to intervene in and guide this process.